Homesteading Symposium!

Last weekend we held our first annual Homesteading Symposium here at Little City Farm!  It was a day-long event packed with 15 workshops to choose from, ranging through a variety of homesteading/sustainability skills including fibre arts, beekeeping, chicken keeping, herbal healing, home brewing, wild edibles, pasta making, yogurt making, natural building, and much more!  The day brought together nearly 40 people wishing to share and/or further their self-reliance skills. 

We are inspired to have met so many wonderful people, proud to know so many friends who are talented facilitators in the homesteading arts, and renewed in the belief that cities are places where we can rely on each other to actively create the kind of ecologically focused homes and communities we want to live in.  Here are just a few photos of the day...

Jane's Walk, Sat May 7

The annual Jane's Walk is coming up on Saturday, May 7 from 10 am-12 noon.  This walk is a legacy to Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), a legendary urban activist, writer and thinker who "championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building...Jacobs saw cities as ecosystems that had their own logic and dynamism which would change over time according to how they were used...She promoted higher density in cities, short blocks, local economies and mixed uses. Jacobs helped derail the car-centred approach to urban planning in both New York and Toronto, invigorating neighbourhood activism by helping stop the expansion of expressways and roads. She lived in Greenwich Village for decades, then moved to Toronto in 1968 where she continued her work and writing on urbanism, economies and social issues until her death in April 2006.  A firm believer in the importance of local residents having input on how their neighbourhoods develop, Jacobs encouraged people to familiarize themselves with the places where they live, work and play with words like these: “No one can find what will work for our cities by looking at … suburban garden cities, manipulating scale models, or inventing dream cities. You’ve got to get out and walk.”
-Downtown is for People, 1957." (excerpt from http://janeswalk.net/about/jane_jacobs).

We are pleased that local residents have organized a Jane's Walk right here in our own Mount Hope neighbourhood, and that Little City Farm will be an official stop along the way his year.  If you come out on the tour you'll hear about the hopes and dreams we have for our urban farm in the midst of this particular neighbourhood, see the strawbale house addition, andtaste fresh baking from the outdoor cob wood-fired oven!  Read more details about the walk here.